Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-07
SUFFERING IN THE WEST.

l
THE GAZETTE prints to-day further ties
timony of the actual condition of the
west, in the shape of resolutions adopted
IN public meeting at Palo Pinto. The
state of Texas and its people should face
the truth of this matter, regardless of the
natural resentment at mischievous eXag-
gerations. There is privation and want
in certain counties that demand immedi-
ate relief, and the truth concerning it
should be told in the interest of suffering
humanity. The truth will not only result
in giving bread to those who need it. but
It will extract the mischief from any ex-
aggeration. But for the wholesale false
hood that people in Texas were suffer
| ing by the hundreds of thousands, those
who were actuated by selfish interests
would not have been able to create the
Impression that no suffering at all ex-
listed. But the truth is being made mani
fest, and just as THE GAZETTE insisted
! in the outset: there is suffering which
is limited to certain counties, and in those
counties was due to special conditions.
Some time prior to the Albany conven-
| ton, the proceedings of which were
printed in THE GAZETTE Sunday, this
paper instituted an inquiry in certain
western counties for the truth, regard
less of consequences. The resolution
requesting THE GAZETTE to print the
Albany resolutions was due to the knowl-
edge of the members of the convention
that this paper was seeking the truth, the
whole nth and nothing but the
truth, concerning the effects Of the
drouih in certain counties. The
testimony OF the Albany convention has
been so far supplemented in THE GA
zETTE by reports of Mr.. B. L. Orrlck
from Stephens county, and of Mr.. G. H.
Crozier from Young county.
Inspired by THG GAzETTE's request for
the truth and all the truth, Mr.. Crozier
of Graham Investigated the matter and
found that $50 families In his county s'are
in destitute circumstances without means
of support, end who can get no employ
ment." And Mr.. CrozieT adds: "THE
GAZETTE correspondent has no prejudice
or bias III the affair, bat until now be-
lieved with many others hat the reports
of the condition of the drouth sufferers
in Young county had been greatly ex-
reggerated." What Mr.. Crozier says of
himself is true of hundreds of others in
the very Counties where the restitution
existed; BUT day by day, as the signs of
the distress became more apparent, the
truth forced itself on men and, although
perilously late, movements were inaugu-
rated to ask that aid which the people OF
the counties were no longer able to rem
der their destitute neighbors.
Yesterday, R. E. Hendry, county Judge
of Pa!o Pinto county, and formerly mem
Der of the legislature from Chero-
kee county, was in Fort Worth
en- route to Austin in behalf of the suffer
ers. A GAZETTE representative sought
and obtained an interview with Judge
Hendry that lasted several hours. The
GAZETTE, presuming on the personal
friendship that existed, asked for the
truth, its details and the proofs of it.
Judge Heudry freely admitted that he,
vita very many others, did not credit the
first reports of the suffering in his own
county, but when he took his place as
county judge the truth came to him in a
way that left no doubt, and he was aston
ished at the details of a want whose very
existence he, at first, doubted. And the
recital of those details by the earnest
county judge of Palo Pinto would move |
a stone to pity, although he made |
no effort to excite emotion but sim
ply to answer fully the at times critical !
heterogeneous put to him. Judge Hen
dry was participant in the Albany con-
vention, and during its session made brief
notes of statements from each delegate
the situation in his county.
These notes the Judge was persuaded to
leave with THE GAZETTE, and he in
formed US that the statements from each
county were submitted by county judges
and commissioners, as the Albany con-
Ventlon would entertain none but official
reports.
In Palo Pinto county there was raised
300 bales of cot on and 1900 bushels of
,orn last year, no wheat and oats at all
being harvested. The granaries, groan-
ng witt the accumulations of the past,
we're rapidly exhausted by the demands
If failure so general throughout the
county, and Those who were able to help
heir less fortunate neighbors are no
onger able TO do so. The surplus in the :
arms melted away under the needs +
reated by a drouth of from twelve TO
ighteen months duration, and those citi-
ems of Palo Pinto, especially, who were !
aging annually for homes or living on C
ented lands, are in sore need of imme- c
late aid; the few who, usually, could
rovide farm work are powerless
} do so, as the continued drouth =.
revents farm work and the situation daily -
rows more serious, $50 families in that g
oHnty being now unable to provide for II
lemselves or remove to localities where I
ork might be procured. Il
Not to amplify this pitiful story, the q
est information as yet attainable by THE Il
-